ELR 2.5.1 - Applying The Lessons Learned From ELR 2.3.X

Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) has been an important part of public health for more than 10 years. The CDC and CSTE are working together to further refine and define the use of ELR for public health.  This presentation will review the history of ELR and attempt to predict its future. During the past ten years there have been numerous ELR implementations, some successful, some challenged.  Public health wants to build on the lessons learned from existing successful implementations.  We also want to leverage efforts by other groups in the laboratory messaging arena. This includes work done in national and international standards development as well as efforts to implement those standards by groups outside of public health. The authors are developing a new version of the ELR Implementation Guide, based on HL7 version 2.5.1. This guide will incorporate work done by the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) for laboratory messaging.  HL7 version 2.5.1 was selected because it incorporates the latest improvements for laboratory messaging, including information added specifically to meet Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) requirements. We are incorporating lessons learned from ELR implementations and building on previous versions of the ELR Implementation Guide. We are also working with other groups such as PHLIP and LRN-B to harmonize on laboratory messaging.